I don't believe that animals have souls but, for better or worse, I
want things done right by them. I guess it goes back to seeing my
father "discipline" one of our dogs.
Roger
On 6/30/08, Kenneth Wolman <[log in to unmask]> wrote:
> Roger Day wrote:
> > http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rainbow_Bridge_%28pets%29
> >
> >
> >
>
> I did not know there was a history or mythography behind the Rainbow Bridge
> prose poem, but of course it makes perfect sense since Originality is one of
> our last illusions--I think of the Norse or Germanic gods entering Valhalla.
> But Valhalla isn't a waiting stop, it's the destination. The Bridge seems
> a non-purging Purgatory; the completing precondition for liberating your
> personally held animals is that you must die too. It sounds a bit like the
> old concept of Limbo--a place of longing rather than of outright pain. It
> also makes the prospect of death animal-centric: you look forward to it as
> reunion rather than dread it as darkness or judgment.
>
> For all that, yes, it is true--animal care people and owners--the ones who
> don't just "have a pet" but (grandiosity alert) entered into an I/Thou with
> a cat or dog, talk to "Miles went to the Bridge in July 2002" (he actually
> did) or "CheesePuff is waiting for me at the Bridge." It is objectively
> mawkish, but otherwise intelligent people--me included? hahaha--feel a need
> for such beliefs. If they don't amount to a religion, they show the most
> extreme possible reverence and respect for what the animals gave us. It
> appears that few people anymore want to think of an animal--or a human--as
> an entirely disposable life. This is why I would much rather associate with
> "animal people" than people who have a demonstrated dislike of or
> indifference to so-called pets. Gee, does that include my ex?:-).
>
> I recall about four years ago a neighbor family--Jukes or Kallikaks, we're
> not sure which--through their negligence allowed their dog to run into
> traffic and be killed by a minivan in front of our house. The woman
> ostensibly in charge told the police "Oh just get rid of the body." No
> cremation, no burial. "Get rid of it" in around Central Jersey means throw
> the dead dog into a county landfill. It was sickening. It depends in large
> measure on whether we believe our companion animals have souls of any kind,
> or perhaps whether anything has a soul. And we all have our own answers.
>
> ken
>
> --
> Ken Wolman http://bestiaire.typepad.com
> http://www.petsit.com/content317832.html
> -------------------
> "Stare. It is the way to educate your eye, and more. Stare, pry, listen,
> eavesdrop. Die knowing something. You are not here long." -- Walker Evans
>
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